Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Debut,” starring Julianne Moore as a 1990s housewife who finds her voice in community theater, will open the 23rd Marrakech International Film Festival, organizers announced Monday. The festival runs Nov. 20-28 and will show 76 films from 39 countries.
Moore plays a shy woman cast in a local musical who turns into an obsessive Method actor. A24 is releasing the film, which Eisenberg wrote and directed. It has already played Telluride and Toronto and closed the BFI London Film Festival. Eisenberg and Moore are both expected at the out-of-competition opening gala.
Marrakech’s top prize, the Étoile d’Or, goes to one of 14 first or second features. Three competition titles make their world premieres: Yassine Marco Marroccu’s “Alkebulan,” a documentary-fiction hybrid; Rani and Salem Massalha’s “Cairo Shadows”; and Farzad Samsami’s “Waves of Silence,” a migrant-shipwreck drama shot in Morocco. The festival’s Atlas Workshops talent program supported “Alkebulan” and “Cairo Shadows.” Ten films in all debut worldwide, and 11 represent their countries in the Oscar race.
The gala section leans toward star power. Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial,” which traces Sam Altman’s rise with Andrew Garfield in the lead, and James Gray’s crime thriller “Paper Tiger,” with Adam Driver and Miles Teller, both screen for the first time in the region. Both directors are Marrakech regulars. Fellipe Barbosa’s “Leila et la nuit,” inspired by Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui, and Omar Hilal’s “His Weakest Creatures” are world premieres. John Turturro will present “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.” Laïla Marrakchi’s “Strawberries,” Morocco’s Oscar entry, follows seasonal workers who challenge abusive employers in Spain.
The Horizons section groups 21 films, including new work from Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Cristian Mungiu, Pawel Pawlikowski, Hirokazu Kore-eda and Nanni Moretti. Eleven Moroccan films appear across the program, plus three shot in the country, among them Ginevra Elkann’s “The Roses of Marrakech.” Jodie Foster and Guillermo del Toro are among the tribute honorees.
Screenings take place at the Palais des Congrès, Le Colisée cinema and the Yves Saint Laurent Museum. Critics of large festival lineups sometimes argue that star galas crowd out emerging voices. Marrakech’s structure answers that with a competition limited to early-career directors, though the gala will draw most of the attention.
